US mum Kristel Candelario sentenced to life over death of baby left alone for 10 days

Kristel Candelario left her 16-month-old daughter alone for 10 days while she went on holiday.

A US mother whose 16-month-old daughter died after being left home alone in a playpen for 10 days last summer while she went on holiday was sentenced on Monday to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Kristel Candelario, 32, had pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder and child endangerment as part of a plea deal with Cuyahoga County prosecutors, who dismissed two murder counts and a felonious assault charge.

Authorities have said Candelario left her daughter, Jailyn, in their Cleveland, Ohio, home when she went on holiday to Detroit and Puerto Rico in June 2023. When she returned 10 days later, she found the girl was not breathing in the playpen and called 911. Emergency responders found the child was “extremely dehydrated” and pronounced her dead shortly after they arrived.

Candelario's daughter Jailyn was left alone for ten days. Photo / NBC News

An autopsy by the Cuyahoga County medical examiner’s office determined that the toddler died of starvation and severe dehydration.

Court documents filed earlier in the case stated the child was left in a baby pen which “consisted of soiled blankets and a bottom liner, saturated with urine and faeces”.

Neighbours reportedly said this wasn’t the first time that Candelario left her daughter alone.

“We keep telling her not to leave her by herself, not just me, my friend across the street too, but she always leave her by herself,” one neighbour told WEWS news.

County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan told Candelario she committed “the ultimate betrayal” by leaving her daughter alone without food.

“Just as you didn’t let Jailyn out of her confinement, so too you should spend the rest of your life in a cell without freedom,” Sheehan said. “The only difference will be, the prison will at least feed you and give you liquid that you denied her.”

Kristel Candelario. Photo / Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department via AP

Candelario, who has struggled with depression and related mental health issues, said she has prayed daily for forgiveness.

“There’s so much pain that I have in regards to the loss of my baby, Jailyn,” she said. “I’m extremely hurt about everything that happened. I am not trying to justify my actions, but nobody knew how much I was suffering and what I was going through ... God and my daughter have forgiven me.”

- Additional reporting NZ Herald